Dem chair: Sestak win 'cataclysmic'

The chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party issued a stern warning to members of his party this week, declaring that nominating Rep. Joe Sestak over Sen. Arlen Specter could have “cataclysmic” consequences for the party’s ability to hold the Senate seat this fall.

As polls show Sestak, a second-term House member from the Philadelphia suburbs, cutting Specter’s advantage to single digits, Chairman T.J. Rooney told POLITICO in an interview that “if we want to keep this seat in Democratic hands, the only person capable of delivering that victory is Arlen Specter.”

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“I can’t say, honest and true, if the shoe’s on the other foot, that we’ll have the same race in November,” Rooney said. “The results could be cataclysmic.”

A Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this week showed Specter’s once formidable double-digit lead narrowing to only 8 percentage points, 47 percent to 39 percent. By midweek, the tracking poll sponsored by Muhlenberg College and the Allentown Morning Call showed Specter ahead by only 5 percentage points. “Momentum is clearly on Sestak’s side at this point,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Still, Sestak’s main challenge may be convincing his party not only that he can win the May primary but that he can win the November general election as well. The Quinnipiac survey found that Democrats believe 60 percent to 23 percent that Specter is more likely to defeat Republican Pat Toomey, a former congressman from the Lehigh Valley.

After lagging far behind his party-switching rival for most of the race, Sestak has recently opened up his campaign coffers and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on biographical ads introducing himself to voters.

On Thursday, Sestak’s campaign also launched a new negative ad against Specter, linking the onetime Republican to former President George W. Bush and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

The blistering 30-second spot begins with a smiling Specter saying, “My change in party will enable me to be reelected.” After clips showing Specter holding hands with Bush, a narrator intones: “Arlen Specter switched parties to save one job: his, not yours.”